


it's a start

by musterings



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Canon Universe, Crack Treated Seriously, Fluff, High School Musical References, Karaoke, M/M, New Year's Eve, Unwilling Karaoke Partners to Lovers, brotherhood era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-21 02:13:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21067076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musterings/pseuds/musterings
Summary: "Come on man, I don't sing, I'll be worse than the last guys—" Gladio protests, but every soldier he passes on the way only cheer in encouragement.Like Ignis, he can't free himself from the emcee's grip, and the emcee shoves him on stage, this time to a raucous roar from the crowd as he stands in front of his own microphone."What gives man?" shouts Gladio."We don't have to do this Gladiolus—" Ignis begins, but the grip of the emcee on their shoulders is like a vice and a threat in one.Gladio learns that anything can happen, when he takes the chance.





	it's a start

**Author's Note:**

  * For [beefy_noods](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beefy_noods/gifts).

> This is for you friend, for making this Week™ tolerable, i hope it makes yours a little better too
> 
> ______________________
> 
> To anyone who happens to live under a rock, this was inspired by [ this scene in High School Musical](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6EOUaWscrE).

Every year the Citadel throws it's own New Year's Party, with its grandiose music and ballroom dances, champagne towers and stuffy tuxedos and nobles so old and nooty and _ handsy. _

Fortunately Gladio only needed to be around for the strained socialising got about an hour, until his father would give him a nod of dismissal, and Gladio's rushing down the dark empty corridors, his footsteps echoing all the way to the training halls. 

Every year the younger Glaive and Crownsguard, at least those fortunate enough to avoid being rostered guarding a large group of snooty nobles, would set their differences aside and throw their own shindig. It's nowhere near as well decorated—most of them would bring their own decorations from home, or buy something cheap and gaudy out of their own pay, there's very little funding for social events in the Insomnian military budget—but the volume of food and drink could give the nobles upstairs a run for their money. 

Gladio weaves through the crowd, slapping the backs of familiar friends, gripping hands in firm handshakes and hugs, one even slipping him a drink as he makes his way to Nyx. 

"Nice of you to finally join us," says Nyx with a clap on his back. 

"I thought they weren't gonna let me leave at one point," says Gladio. He unbuttons his uniform jacket, "One of 'em were set on sending me off on a blind date with their daughters, and I'm sure if I stayed a minute longer, the date would be tonight even."

"Wow, sounds terrible being you," Nyx scoffs, "Woulda been a guaranteed New Year's kiss huh?" 

"Oh fuck off," Gladio punches him straight in the bicep, and it's only toeing the line between playful and deliberate, "Not like I need any help getting that."

"Oh yeah?" Nyx raises an eyebrow along with his cup, "What's your breakup count this year Amicitia? Broke last year's right—"

"Couldn't afford a DJ this year?" Gladio asks, conveniently spotting a TV right to the very front of the hall, set atop a raised platform. It's not really Gladio's fault he can't seem to hold a partner. Not a lot of them knew he was serious when he tells 'em he's on call 24/7. Ah well, he's still young. 

In front of two microphone stands, two of the guards work through an uncoordinated dance, their brightly sequined hats glistening, their singing so off key, Gladio couldn't even figure out on which universe that key they couldn't match existed on. 

"You know there's never any funding for these things," Nyx lifts his cup up to take a sip, "Libertus came up with the idea, and I am always down to bolster morale in the young and impressionable minds of the newest recruits—" 

"Okay I get it, you guys had no money and you wanted a laugh."

"Pretty much." 

The Crownsguard in the green sequined hat rounds up the song with what was less of a falsetto and more of a screech one would be more likely to hear in a back alley unlicensed dentist, and his duet partner drums on an imaginary drum. How much has she had to drink? It's hard to tell if their failure to realise that there is no falsetto nor drum in this song is due to the alcohol or just plain deafness to anything that can be considered music. 

"Amazing folks, not something I'll ever want to hear in my lifetime but amazing nonetheless!" says their evening's emcee, large young man in his fatigues. This one's a Glaive, "We've got another duet for you guys here, maybe get us all in a kissin' mood before the night ends, who's up for the next track?" 

Their emcee jumps off his platform, and starts prowling for an innocent victim. He nears a young man seated on the bench alongside the wall, so engrossed in his book he's reading under the flashlight of his phone that he doesn't notice their self made emcee approaching until he grasps him by the wrist. 

Gladio smirks. In the past few years they've thrown this party, Ignis hardly ever made the effort to show up. Rumour has it he only started attending these parties by Royal decree from the King himself, and that pretty soon it'd have to be made law that at the end of every year, Ignis was not to be seen anywhere near the Royal ballrooms, and should instead _ have fun. _

Gladio almost feels bad when Ignis tries to tug away, but the emcee has almost a head on Ignis, and the muscles of a professional wrestler. His microphone looks comical in his hands, just as he pulls Ignis onto the stage right in front of one microphone on its stand. 

The rambunctious crowd is suddenly silent. Ignis puts in his hours in the training halls. Gladio's sure almost everyone in this party's seen what Ignis is capable of, except maybe their hapless emcee who jumps off the platform again to find his next victim. 

Standing there in his best tuxedo for the party upstairs than the one here, Ignis stares with disgust at the microphone on the stand, then out at the crowd, squinting at the spotlight. 

Another spotlight whips away just as the emcee rounds to Gladio's side of the hall in record time. _ Wait why's he coming this way _? Gladio turns around, and is face to face with Nyx, whose arm is raised above Gladio's head, pointing directly at it with one finger. 

Whatever Nyx was mouthing to the emcee ceases, his mouth curls into a smirk, and the emcee who Gladio is sure was sourced from Insomnia's Wrestling Federation tugs Gladio towards the makeshift stage. 

"Come on man, I don't sing, I'll be worse than the last guys—" Gladio protests, but every soldier he passes on the way only cheer in encouragement. 

Like Ignis, he can't free himself from the emcee's grip, and the emcee shoves him on stage, this time to a raucous roar from the crowd as he stands in front of his own microphone. 

"What gives man?" shouts Gladio.

"We don't have to do this Gladiolus—" Ignis begins, but the grip of the emcee on their shoulders is like a vice and a threat in one.

"Someday you guys'll thank me," the emcee says with a boyish grin that doesn't quite reflect the wrath in his eyes. He walks off the stage, patting Gladio's shoulder, "Or not."

The stage is surrounded by highly trained soldiers and recruits, even if Gladio can muscle his way through 'em, he's no match for an entire hall of them. 

This shouldn't be too hard. The guys will probably take the piss outta him for the first few weeks of the new year, but most of them are probably too plastered to remember anything the following day. Ignis seems to be considering his own options, with his shoulders rolled forward and his arms crossed, while he stares at his feet. Gladio almost feels bad. His friends will play it off as a joke, but Ignis wasn't as popular or well-known amongst the lower ranks, he probably won't get out of this unscathed. 

The first few notes of a piano begins and Gladio recognises it straight away. 

It's from a movie Iris goes wild for, a musical set in high school, the drama and romantic tension arising from the fact that the guy, a star member of the school's basketball team, falls for a girl on the Old Lucian recitation competition club. 

Casting an unsure glance at the crowd, Gladio sings the first few words. He lied. He _ can _ sing. Not classically trained or anything, but what are older brothers for other than to sing along to cheesy musicals with? Years of that should be enough training. Iris knew all the words to the girl's part, but she needed her star basketballer, and she needed him to know his parts just as well as she did hers. 

There's a whoop in the crowd. Gladio turns to Ignis as he sings, who was actually a few steps off from leaving the stage that sneaky fucker, but his already wide eyes widen even more in surprise, and looks up through his fringe at Gladio when he hits every note perfectly. 

The dot on the TV in front of them starts counting down to the girl's part, and Ignis slinks back, as if he's tugged back by some unknown force. He starts off nervous, but he sings his part smoothly like he was born for it. 

_ Shit _. Gladio's mouth hangs open. Ignis's voice has always been, objectively, one of the better things to listen to if Gladio had to pick someone to lecture him at any point of the day, which Ignis does frequently, but damn, the guy had pipes. His still got his arms crossed self consciously, glaring at the TV screen like he's writing up his hitlist—population, everyone in the crowd, starting with the emcee—but his singing voice was so mesmerising, Gladio couldn't help but join in when the bouncing ball on the screen tells him to, his voice blending in perfectly with Ignis's. 

There was a break in Ignis's facade, a chuckle even, when Gladio stretches an arm out in the air as they soar through the chorus. Something about that slight smile, or maybe it was the alcohol—_ you barely had two glasses you idiot _, he tells himself—has him throwing himself into the next verse, like he's singing with Iris in their living room and not in a hall in front of thirty percent of Insomnia's military force. 

"Take it off!" someone screams in the audience. 

So Gladio does, shucking his jacket off his shoulders and throwing it into the crowd, stripping him down to his dark tank top to loud wolf whistles. Ignis screws his face up at him, his expression incredulous, and he almost misses his cue to sing along with Gladio. 

If anyone even _ thinks _ about making fun of Ignis for tonight, they'd look like a gigantic moron, when Gladio's making a bigger clown of himself.

Gladio pulls the microphone off the stand, and there's the crack again, Ignis's grin now wide while he laughs through his next line, and Gladio never thought he'd ever enjoy the sight of Ignis Scientia laughing this much. Laughing _at_ him. He could barely cope with Ignis's upturned nose of superiority in the training halls whenever he bests him in training, but Ignis's smile when he laughs stirs something in Gladio's chest. 

Ignis starts playing along, his hands wrapped around the mic on the stand like a lifeline, swaying stiffly to the beat. Gladio dips his microphone stand during the bridge and Ignis leans away from his mic to stifle a laugh before he's belting the next few notes with his eyes shut, and Gladio's grin is nothing short of enamored when the crowd screams. 

Their eyes meet as they belt into the final chorus, and Gladio can swear his stomach tightens. He hasn't had all that much to eat, so maybe that's why the tightness unfurls into a burst of butterflies when Ignis gives him a wink. 

Not wanting to be outmatched, Gladio makes a show of dancing towards Ignis as he sings, and Ignis’s carefree smile looks unsure again as he backs away, and Gladio almost has to halt the song when Ignis almost tips off the edge, but fortunately they've got an entire row of well built men and women attending this party, pushing Ignis back on stage to stand right in front of Gladio again. Ignis is so close and his smile is back, filled with relief as they sing the last few lines of the song, and there's a glint in his eyes that draws Gladio closer and closer until the music fades out. 

The emcee yells something inaudible into the roaring crowd, and Gladio breathes heavy, his eyes still refusing to leave Ignis's. 

"Not bad," Ignis mutters, and he's also breathless, his cheeks red in the spotlight, and that sound shouldn't awaken those deep feelings in Gladio's gut. 

"Same to you," Gladio murmurs back. 

The emcee pulls them off the stage and Ignis disappears into the crowd before Gladio can get to him. 

"What the fuck Amicitia," yells Nyx as he approaches him.

"So what? I have a kid sister, whaddya expect?" Gladio says as he whips his head around.

"Who're you lookin' for?" asks Nyx, but there's a lilt to his voice that implies he doesn't need the answer to that. 

"No one."

"Whoever _no one_ is, they'll probably be outside, the Fireworks are starting soon, and everyone's making their way to the courtyards." 

Gladio follows behind Nyx through the crowd and he continues to search as he goes, and Gladio can't really understand why. What did he expect to say when he does find Ignis? _Hey great singing, but I also think you're kinda cute, and all it took after years of knowing each other was seeing you kill it at karaoke? _Gladio was given no further time to prepare his material than that, as Nyx leaves him to greet another friend and Gladio's gaze lands on a young man, nose once again in a book under the light of his phone.

"Where do you find the time to learn how to sing like that when the only free time you can use to read is at a party?" asks Gladio. His heart hammers in his chest. 

Ignis only raises his head slightly, "That's what the shower is for," he says with a straight face. 

Gladio snorts, and a small smile appears on Ignis's face. 

"And yourself?" Ignis asks.

"Iris."

"Ah."

Silence falls between them again, and Ignis looks back down at his book. 

"Whatcha readin'?" asks Gladio. 

"Shouldn't you be somewhere else?" Ignis asks back, and there's that crease of constant frustation back between his brows.

"Huh?" 

Ignis's eyes dart to the side, "It's almost midnight."

"And?" 

Ignis sighs deeply and he folds one corner of the page of his book. He pats the space beside him on the bench, and Gladio grins before he plonks himself in that spot. It was just a bit of fiction, Ignis explains with a wave of his hand, a light hearted comedy. It's not a genre he normally reads, but he spends so much time reading for work, sometimes reading for fun becomes a chore and so he tries to mix up the genres when can, and Gladio asks what genres he _does_ read, and with a suspicious glance at Gladio, Ignis lists them, almost apprehensively.

"I don't suppose it's the kind of thing you're interested in," Ignis says dismissively. 

"I— uh, no!" Gladio begins, "I like it too." 

"Comedy?" 

"No. Books." 

"Oh," Ignis glances out at the crowd, his expression unreadable, "I wouldn't have thought that."

"That's fair," Gladio scratches the back of his head, "I don't speak about it all that much."

"Well, outside of work, we don't really speak all that much at all, generally speaking," says Ignis flatly.

"We can start right? I'll show you some of my books, maybe I can recommend you something different."

"I— I would like that," says Ignis, "It's strange, I'm now quite pleased we were humiliated in that manner this evening, or I never would've found out this tidbit about you."

Gladio shrugs, "Hilarious huh?" 

"Quite," Ignis smiles and a crowd cheers in a steady rhythm in Gladio's heart.

No wait, a crowd_ is _ cheering. 

In a steady rhythm, 'cause they're counting. Down. Counting down. 

Ignis raises his eyebrows slightly, "Already?" 

"_ Five! Four—!_" 

"I guess we lost track of time huh?" Gladio yells out. 

Ignis fumbles with the book on his lap, and Gladio could swear he scoots closer beside him.

"I suppose we did," Ignis has to say loudly in his ear, the crowds drowning out anything else. 

"_ Three—! Two—! _" 

The first burst of light tears through the air and it illuminates the curious gaze on Ignis's face as he turns to meet Gladio's. Gladio's not sure what expression he has on right now, but the lights glimmer in Ignis's eyes above his glasses, and his lips, slightly parted in awe, they're right there in front of Gladio's, and the countdown hits zero. 

Gladio presses their lips together. 

He pauses, waits for the violent push back, but an arm hooks behind Gladio's neck, and Gladio's heart jumps and he kisses Ignis harder. He wraps an arm behind Ignis's waist, pulling him against him, and he wants to scream—but that'd be rude considering he's glued to another guy's face right now—when Ignis slides his tongue into Gladio's mouth, and they kiss for as long as the entire fireworks show punctuates the beating of Gladio's heart, a rhythm that doesn't cease when they pull away from each other. 

"Um," Gladio begins. 

"Did you like my singing _ that _much?" says Ignis, his laugh is soft but teasing, and his eyes are averted to the ground. 

"I've always thought you were good at what you did but uh—" Gladio swallows and tries to wet his dried up mouth, wishing someone else's tongue was doing that for him, "But tonight, you were cute— _are_ cute, I like you, I liked _ that— _" 

Ignis laughs again and _ gods _ he looks even better this happy in the light of fireworks, his laughter as melodic and full of heart as his singing was, and it cuts through the loud explosions around them and straight into Gladio's chest, before he pulls Gladio in again for another kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry to anyone who expects anything of substance from me,, this was hammered out in like 2 hours on my phone because i needed something dumb and fun


End file.
